Small three- and four-wheel utility vehicles have widespread use in connection with maintaining golf courses, estates, parks, theme parks and the like. Their primary functions are to transport personnel and equipment between the maintenance yard and shop and various locations on the grounds. Some of the equipment may be relatively easily handled, such as hoses, directional signs, tools and horticultural plantings. However, some items may be relatively heavy and bulky, including lawn mowers such as those used for golf course greens. For this reason, it is desirable to have a low bed so that it is easy to lift the equipment into the vehicle bed or to run it in up a shallow ramp.
Many currently available utility vehicles employ an engine with a power train to the rear wheels. Because power is transmitted to the rear wheels, the container bed must be relatively high and thereby it is somewhat difficult to use, requiring significant lifting in many instances. This has led to the configuration of some utility vehicles having front wheel drive. Such drive is normally provided from a gasoline engine by means of belts or chains to the front wheel. Because of this configuration, there is no suspension in these front wheel drive vehicles. This provides a very harsh ride for the vehicle operator and riders and significant shock to the vehicle and equipment, thereby causing failure of parts well before their normal times. It should be realized that these vehicles typically move over terrain that is not a paved path so it is primarily uneven and, depending upon speed, can be very bumpy.
Because of the requirement for orientation of the engine with respect to the front drive wheel, the exhaust has often been located at the operator's shoulder level so that the exhaust fumes tend to be in the operator's face, thereby causing considerable danger and discomfort.
Another characteristic of these direct driven gasoline powered engines is that they employ a single speed fixed ratio power source, possibly with a double reduction through belts and chains. When high resistance is encountered, such as moving uphill with a heavy load, the only method of obtaining high wheel torque is by "slipping" the clutch or the drive belt on the pulley wheel by the operator. This practice may propel the vehicle up the hill but it leads to high friction heat which causes extreme belt fatigue, thereby resulting in belt failure because of the burning of the belt material. Alternatively, if "slipping" is not performed, the engine, having a relatively high ratio, will be "lugged down," and be unable to maintain the necessary torque so that stalling will often result.
With respect to suspension, because of the use of the chain or belt drive, front wheel suspension would be very difficult. Further, with a typical configuration of this type, two bearings and a chain must be removed in order to remove or replace the wheel in case of damage to the tire.
Braking in some of the prior art vehicles is accomplished through a mechanical lever handle which in turn moves a lever with two V-shaped braking pads attached. These braking pads are forced in a pulley "V" attached to an intermediate shaft, or jackshaft. This friction slows and stops the jackshaft which in turn slows and stops the chain driving the wheel. If the chain should happen to jump off the sprockets, there is no braking at all and the vehicle is left in a free-wheeling condition, with possible catastrophic results.